Tiger Woods Withdraws From Dubai Desert Classic

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Tiger Woods withdrew from the Dubai Desert Classic on Friday after shooting an opening-round 77 on Thursday, another frustrating setback in his return to golf after a lengthy injury layoff.

“Tiger Woods went into a spasm in his lower back fairly late last night, got treatment done early this morning for three and a half hours, but can’t get it out,” Steinberg said. “He says it’s not the nerve, but back spasm, and he can’t get the spasms to calm down. He can move around, but he can’t make a full rotation in his swing.”

Woods is trying to return after multiple back surgeries and a 16-month layoff, and he was expected to play four times in five weeks, starting with last week’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in California, where he missed the cut.

The European Tour, without giving a reason, announced his withdrawal from the Dubai event on Friday before Woods began his second round.

After his opening round, Woods said: “I wasn’t in pain at all. I was just trying to hit shots, and I wasn’t doing a very good job.”

Last week in San Diego, Woods returned to the P.G.A. Tour and lasted only two days.

Woods never got anything going after starting with a birdie in the Farmers Insurance Open, and he did not come close to making the cut. He missed a 12-foot birdie putt on his final hole on the North Course for an even-par 72 and missed the cut at Torrey Pines for the first time in his career.

Woods was coming off the longest layoff of his career as he recovered from two back surgeries. He had last played on the P.G.A. Tour in August 2015 at the Wyndham Championship, where he tied for 10th. He played in the Bahamas in the first week of December in an unofficial event with an 18-man field and no cut.

After Dubai, Woods has a scheduled week off before he is to play back-to-back weeks on both ends of the country, Los Angeles (Genesis Open) and Florida (Honda Classic).

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D4 of the New York edition with the headline: Golf; Woods Withdraws From Dubai Tournament. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe